Hi, everyone. This is Curtis, and I am excited to tell you about a new feature of the GoodFaith podcast, and it's called Campfire Stories.

Now, in a great campfire, everyone has the opportunity to share their stories. And so, in Campfire Stories, we want to hear from you.

We want to hear a story about what you are doing along the themes of the GoodFaith podcast, perhaps it's something about how you're living out your relationships with political polarization, how you are trying to reflect the image of God in your institution and organization, or what you're doing with your money, or your vocation, anything that has been sparked by the themes that we've covered here in the GoodFaith podcast is fear game.

It doesn't matter if it's a big story, a small story, or something in between, as long as it's a story about what you are doing in your life.

We're not so much interested in hearing just thoughts. We want to hear stories of doing.

So, we'll put a link in the show notes where you can just click on it and then supply us the basic outlines of your story of doing, of living out the themes of GoodFaith podcast.

And we'll look at it and we may invite you to share that story on a GoodFaith blog, a social media, or perhaps even invite you to come on the GoodFaith show yourself and talk to me and share your story.

Like, how cool would that be? I'd love to hear from you. I'd love to talk with you. So, please consider joining the Campfire by actually joining actively and sharing your story with others gathered around the Campfire.

Thanks.

Welcome to the GoodFaith podcast. This is David French with Curtis Chang. And we have our first guest.

And, you know, Curtis, when I was thinking through who should be our first guest, I was trying to think, you know, we need to go for sort of, we need to go for the grand slam.

We need to hit the home run on the first guest. So, do you go for like a super famous Christian personality? You know, Steph Curry, for example, I mean, do you go for somebody like that? Do you go for, you know, someone most powerful Christians in America?

I mean, I met Vice President Pence at a Samaritan's purse works work site in Mayfield, Kentucky. Should I've asked him then to join the podcast?

But there's really only one person. It's the pod father himself. It is the man who has been who is the architect behind the podcast that I can't, it's the only podcast that I think almost everyone I know has asked me, have you listened to this podcast?

And I'm, of course, talking about my cost per Christianity today is my cost per the architect behind the rise and fall of Mars Hill.

And we're going to have a conversation about that podcast. It's not going to detail the rise and fall of Mars Hill. Okay. That we're going to assume a lot of people have already listened to the podcast judging from my inbox a ton of people have already listened to the podcast.

But just for those of you haven't, it is a, it is a long in depth story of the story of Mars Hill, Mars Hill church in Seattle, the rise of Mark Driscoll as not just a pastor of a church, but one of the foremost personalities and what was at the time known as a young restless and reform movement, but went beyond that.

I mean, he sort of broke out of that cocoon. And then there really a dramatic and a drop fall of that church, not through some sort of Jimmy Swagger, Jim Baker kind of scandal, but really from a combination of toxic personality, I come in and a, and just sometimes sort of outright spiritual abuse.

Cubress narcissism, if you're going to diagnose somebody from a distance, and it has really resonated with people and Curtis before, you know, I know you got questions for Mike. So I'm just like stepping all over you here in the intro. Sorry.

But I just want to start. I want to go for it. Go for it. All right. All right, Mike. So to say this podcast has gone viral is an is an understatement.

You know, at least in sort of our shared mutual circles, it's really, really done well. And you know, when I write something that goes, you know, somewhat viral or get some resonance, I've noticed something about it, the reaction to it.

There's a public reaction to it, which is what people talk about on social media. And then there's a private reaction in the way people send me messages directly and personally, usually email, I send out a newsletter.

...